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My mind raced with the same questions over and over again. Does he believe me? Is he capable of believing me? Would it even matter if he did?
Even if he saw every detail of my story for the truth that it was, what would that change? I wasn’t just a mole, but an admitted mole. What would stop him from just killing me on the spot?
But I was willing to tell him the whole story. Every little detail that he could ever want. But did that matter to him? From what I understood, these Vinduthi guys were pretty no nonsense.
After everything, after all the fighting I’d done, I might still just end up dead in some trash pit.
And then what would happen to Isa?
RYRIK
“Hmm,” I grumbled to myself.
“Do… Do you believe me yet?”
As I stood before Amber, looking over her files on my device, I slowly became more convinced. Not entirely, mind you. But more so than I was twenty minutes prior.
Yet still, an anger coursed through every fiber of my body. This mole managed to sneak into our walls. Work among our staff. There was no telling the damage this had already caused to our operation.
“You’re saying Conii forged this to get you working at our casino?”
“Yes, exactly. I never wanted any of this! But I was forced to because they have my friend Isa.”
Amber’s story, at times, was hard to believe. Her never truly being indentured just didn’t make sense. What human hung out with the Quilthar by choice? And parts of her tale maybe sounded a bit rehearsed at times. But the tone of her voice sounded completely sincere. Plus, it was so detailed.
On top of that, the files weren’t perfect. It was a good forgery. Whoever made it clearly knew what they were doing. But it was far from perfect.
Some details were fudged. The symbols on the non-fungible stamp of authenticity seemed off. The digital audit trail looked as though it was artificially inflated. Details you’d never look for on first inspection, because no one in their right mind would lie about being an indentured servant.
Certainly no human would. They’d be signing away their own freedom. So one thing was for sure, she was working with others and was probably forced into it. Whether it was actually Conii had yet to be determined.
“Are you still on shift?” I asked as I put away my device.
“Yes, I’m scheduled to work the rest of the night.”
“Good. Go back to work,” I ordered. “Don’t do anything not in your job description and don’t leave at the end of your shift until you check in with me. Understand?”
“Yes, sir,” she said timidly. “Does this mean you believe me? Believe my story?”
“I didn’t say that. Go.”
“Sakkar,” I pinged him on my percomm. “Take a look at this. Tell me what you see.”
The answer from our resident tech genius came back in just a moment. “Fuck,” I muttered, leaning back and rubbing my eyes. Definitely forged. “Do me a favor. Don’t say anything about this for a few days, all right?”
“It’s a security breach,” he argued, voice rough. “I don’t like it.”
“It potentially leads to a bigger problem,” I insisted. “And trust me, I like it less.”
With minor muttering and bitching, Sakkar agreed. “For now,” he grumbled as he logged off. “Not for long.”
Amber was telling the truth, about that at least. But what about the rest of her story?
If Amber was lying, how did she possibly know Conii’s name? Unless, of course, she really worked for her. This type of plan had Conii’s fingerprints all over it. Especially the part where she had others doing her dirty work as she lurked in the shadows.
Plus, this would just be a strange story from start to finish to make up. If she was lying, she wouldn’t lie about being a mole. Or lie about working with our worst enemy.
I might’ve just been on the edge of believing her. At least a little. Though, trust in her was a far way away. She’d admitted to not having the Black Star’s best interest at heart, and I was not so naïve as to see that changing.
